by Stucky, Pam
“Crowd around,” Eve instructed the others, gathering them closer to her. “And watch.”
The group clustered tightly around Eve.
“When I say move, everyone walk forward,” she said. “Like, two steps. Then stop.”
Emma wrapped the arm that held Charlie’s hand close around his arm. Charlie laughed. “Calm down, sis,” he said. “I’m with you.”
“Move!” said Eve.
As if in a comedy film, the group shuffled clumsily in a cluster toward the center.
And they all saw what Eve had seen. The air in the center seemed to shift in shimmering waves, like ripples on a lake dispersing from a stone’s throw. The air, invisible, seemed to take on weight and shape, no longer invisible but instead thick, like a see-through gelatin.
“What’s happening?” said Chuck.
“Shhh,” said Eve. “Wait. Watch.” Her arm linked with Emma’s, Eve grasped the opal and the magnetic bracelet in both hands.
Suddenly, the air in front of them changed completely, and a new landscape appeared momentarily, parting from a center point then dissipating out to the edges.
“What was that!” said Charlie. He gripped tighter to Emma’s arm.
Before anyone could answer, it happened again. Another landscape emerged from a point in the center, growing out several feet to the edges before disappearing. Then another, and another, slow at first, then faster and faster. Each image opened like a window before them, a screen door, so real it seemed they could walk through. Flickers of landscape after landscape passed before their eyes.
“Step back!” said Eve. The others obeyed. The images disappeared.
“What!” said Chuck. “What the heck!”
Emma looked at Eve. “Do you think those were other planets?” she asked.
“I think they might be,” she replied. “Other planets, in other universes.”
Emma’s heart was beating fast. “Do you think … we’re supposed to jump in? Walk through that window?” She glanced around the area, checking for onlookers, people watching from afar. No one was anywhere to be seen.
Eve let out another whoosh of air. “I don’t know, but that’s what I was thinking.”
“How do we know which one to jump into, though?” asked Charlie. “And then what happens?”
“I think,” said Eve, “that’s where ‘water’ comes in. As for what happens next, I don’t know.”
Emma had been thinking the same thing. “Okay. So, we wait until we see a water landscape. But what if there’s more than one planet with a water landscape? What then?”
“I think I’ll know,” said Eve. “I just … I think my gut will tell me which is the right one. You guys ready again?”
“Ready as we’ll ever be,” said Chuck. “Lead the way!”
“Okay,” said Eve, bracing herself. “We’ll walk forward again until we see a water landscape, and then when I say go, everyone walk through. I don’t want to leave anyone behind.”
They huddled together, everyone clinging to everyone else. “Walk forward,” said Eve calmly, and as one they moved toward the center of the circle.
The air shimmered again, changed, transformed until once again it had weight and substance. And then, as before, the landscapes started to emerge. A dry desert, not terribly different from the one they were in. A craggy mountaintop, snow-covered, the chill of the air bursting through to cool them for the briefest second. A marketplace, filled with sentient beings.
“Can they see us?” whispered Chuck, but before anyone could answer, the landscape changed again.
A nighttime forest filled with dark, twisted trees, illuminated by two enormous moons.
An underground cave sheltering a crystalline lake, stalactites dripping in an eternal journey from the ceiling.
“Is that it? There’s water …” said Emma.
Eve shook her head no. “I don’t think so.”
When the next landscape flashed open, they all knew. This was it.
“Now!” cried Eve. “Jump!”
chapter nine
They jumped. Or rather, they dived—because what they saw before them was not a lake, or an ocean, or a pond, but rather a complete wall of water. In the universe they were jumping into, wherever that might be, this window opened up deep under water. Some law of physics or the universe or interuniversal travel somehow kept the water on the side of the water universe, though in the split second the teens saw the wall of water, Emma half expected it all to start spilling into their own world.
So when Eve said “Jump!” they dived, headfirst, into a wall of water, clumsily holding on to each other as, incredibly, impossibly, they stepped over a threshold from one universe to another.
Once in the water, Emma glanced back to where they’d been, to the hot Australian desert side of the portal. The window to their own world closed the instant after Ben’s foot made it through.
“Phew,” she said. “That was close.” Even as she started to speak she realized—or assumed—she was about to get a mouth full of water.
She did not.
It hadn’t occurred to her until that moment to wonder whether the rock on her bracelet, the one which allowed her to breathe normally in other atmospheres, would also work under water. Luckily for them all, it seemed that it did. A field of air hovered around each of the teens’ heads. The air bubble thickened at noses and mouths and faded out to blend imperceptibly with the water about three inches from their faces. Looking at each other, the teens could just barely make out the pockets of air. About the only clue to the existence of the air pockets was the fact that they could breathe.
Emma kicked lightly to maneuver herself in the water. She tested her ability to breathe, taking deep, tentative, shallow breaths to try to calm the panic she felt rising inside her. The teens had not landed anywhere near the surface of the water, it seemed, but neither were they at the ocean floor. They were simply floating in the depths of some vast ocean on some unknown world. “Seems like we have air around our eyes, too,” Emma observed. “Hadn’t thought of that, but that’s good.”
What the others heard was “Eeemmiiee rrmmm err ooo. Aaddnaao aaa ooo.”
“What?” said Charlie.
The others heard “Ahhh?”
“Talking. Under water. Of course! We can’t understand each other!” said Eve. She shook her head and waved her arms slowly through the water.
The others couldn’t understand, but from her frustration, and their own, they knew what she was saying.
What were we thinking? thought Emma. We weren’t. We just jumped. We should have known better! She glanced over at Charlie, who was watching her. She knew he knew what she was thinking, but that didn’t help their situation at all. She shook her head at him. “What do we do now?” her look said.
Figure out more about where we are, she told herself. Look around. See if there’s a way to the surface. If there’s even a surface, that is, she thought.
Emma took another cautious, deep breath within her tiny bubble of air. Assess the situation, she told herself. Figure out what you know for sure.
First, she thought, we’re alive. So that’s a positive.
Second, we’re floating in mid-water, not sinking. So that’s a positive. I guess.
Third. Look around. Okay. There’s water. That’s pretty obvious. Wait, it’s not too dark for me to see, she thought, so either the stones are giving us the ability to see under water, too, or we’re near enough to the surface for light to shine down. So that’s a positive.
Emma noticed that Eve and Ben were trying to pantomime a conversation, but she couldn’t make heads or tails of what they were saying. She continued with her assessment.
Fourth. I don’t see Eve’s mom anywhere. So that’s a negative. On the other hand, I don’t see any beings, so that’s probably a positive, because we are, pretty much, defenseless.
She squinted, trying to see farther into the murky depths. Is that … are those buildings over there? She looked closel
y but couldn’t interpret what she was seeing. In the distance, on what she thought might be the ocean floor, were large structures that seemed to have some intentional form. Not just rocks and caves, but structures that could have been built, could have been put together with some thought. Which would indicate intelligent life. Which would indicate …
“They live here! People live here under water!” she blurted out.
The others heard: “Ayyierr! Eehhhhrrrdrrrarr!”
Emma pointed and gesticulated toward the structures, trying desperately to communicate. The others followed her line of sight, but could not figure out what she was trying to tell them.
“Buildings! Homes!” Emma cried out futilely. “They’re …”
And then she saw movement.
Dark forms rushed toward them, with the grace and agility of creatures that lived under water. And with a speed and precision that implied intent.
The others couldn’t understand the words Emma was crying out, but the look of alarm on her face was enough to alert them. They turned just in time to see six creatures of the sea surging at them, carrying between them a giant, roughly formed net.
They were trapped.
The aquatic creatures scooped them up faster than they could react. The net that imprisoned the teens seemed to be made from some strong form of seaweed. They struggled against it but their confusion and fear, combined with their lack of underwater agility, left them helpless.
“My bag!” Emma screamed into the air bubble surrounding her head. In the chaos, her backpack, with not only her spare clothes and food and iPert but also an extra Dark MATTER and pigeon, had been ripped from her back. Emma watched with dismay as it floated slowly toward the ocean floor. Squinting, she saw two other dark masses swirling alongside it. In horror, Emma realized those were two other backpacks, each full of items they needed to survive and return home.
She didn’t have a chance to watch the bags land, as the beings pulled their captives along through the water at breakneck speed. Emma felt the pressure of the water tearing at her face and tangled limbs. Trying to remain calm, she studied their captors as best she could from her awkward position, sandwiched between Eve and Chuck, all of them pressed up against the sides of the net, arms and legs trailing. The creatures looked a lot like octopuses, she thought; at least, that’s the best reference point she could think of. She thought she counted nine legs, though, or arms, she wasn’t sure which. Maybe both. At the end of each arm or leg were several long tentacles, sort of like fingers. Emma couldn’t quite figure out how the beings moved so swiftly through the water. They seemed to pulse; the movement was not steady. But with all of them acting together, they were fast.
The force of water somehow pushed the air pockets that allowed them to breathe closer to their faces. Emma was just about to panic for real when the beings thrust them all into a giant, solid room—more box-like than cave-like—that very definitely looked man-made. Or made by something, anyway, thought Emma.
Unceremoniously, the creatures pushed the teens into the box. They gathered up the net with no apparent concern as to whether they might be taking any fingers and arms and legs or anything else with them, and rushed out. A wall closed behind them, sealing the teens inside … and sealing out all light.
“Aaahhh!” “Rrrgagaahh!” In the darkness, Emma could hear the muted mumbles of others yelling, but she still couldn’t make out their words. Her heart raced so fast she thought it might pound out of her chest. She flailed, trying to find someone’s arm, a leg, something to cling to, someone to hold on to. A hand caught hers, and whoever it was pulled her close.
Suddenly, lights went on in the box, blinding them.
The water that filled the room started to gush out through a drain as the teens looked on in both hope and horror. Quickly, the level of the water lowered enough for them to stand. Emma looked and realized it was Chuck she was clinging to.
“Can you all hear me now?” asked Emma tentatively, still holding tight to Chuck’s arm.
“Yes!” cried Eve, collapsing onto the floor. “Oh my gosh, where are we? What is happening? I lost my bag!”
“Me too,” said Emma. “It fell when they caught us. I lost everything.”
“Me three,” said Chuck. “Gone.”
“I had mine,” said Ben, “but it’s gone now. It must have been tangled in the net when they took it away.”
Everyone looked at Charlie.
His backpack was still attached to his back but it was hanging completely open, mostly empty, its few remaining contents spilling out the sides.
“Your iPert?” said Emma. “Or a Dark MATTER globe? A pigeon?”
As the others watched on, holding their breaths, Charlie reached deep into the pockets of his bag. “The iPert, I think!” he said, his fingers pushing into a far corner. He pulled the object out triumphantly. The look on his face quickly fell. “Cracked,” he said, holding it up to show the others.
“‘Cracked’ is an understatement,” said Chuck, reaching out for Charlie’s iPert. “Demolished is more like it. How did that happen?” As he held the iPert, water dripped from its core.
“Make note of that, please, to tell the committee to make the iPerts shatterproof and waterproof,” said Emma bleakly.
“Noted,” said Charlie.
“Anything else?” said Eve, the hope in her voice noticeably diminished.
Charlie rummaged through his pack some more, then dumped all the contents onto the floor. Everyone went over to help search for any device that might help them get home, but they found nothing.
Emma inhaled deeply. “Well, at least we can still breathe, anyway, right? And we can hear each other again, so that’s good?” She watched as the last of the water seeped down the drain. They were, if nothing else, on dry land again.
“But where are we? Are they going to let us out? And how did they know we weren’t like them? I thought the bracelets were supposed to disguise us?” said Charlie in a rush.
“And I thought the bracelets were supposed to enable us to communicate with each other?” said Chuck. “But not under water, apparently.”
Eve shook her head. “I have no idea. This was so stupid of me, telling you all to jump into the water! What was I thinking?” She started to cry.
“It’s not your fault, Eve—” Ben began, but stopped mid-sentence when another side wall started to slide open.
The door inched open slowly. The teens stood watching, barely moving, afraid of what was to come next. Charlie moved protectively in front of Emma. She reached for his hand and held tight.
Whatever was on the other side, the teens were relieved to see it was not filled with water. As the door’s opening widened, it revealed what seemed to be a rather plain hallway, its floor tiled in a deep ocean blue, its walls a simple off-white.
But the teens hardly noticed the walls or the tiles, because standing there in front of them was a woman, tall and blond, looking a great deal like someone they already knew.
“Hello?” the woman said tentatively.
Eve saw the woman and leaped from her place on the floor. “Mom?” she cried, hardly believing her eyes. “Mom! Is that really you?” She rushed into the woman’s arms.
“Oh my gosh, Evella, you found me! Is that really you? I can’t believe you’re here!” Kata hugged her daughter tight. “You’re all wet! Come inside, change your clothes, you’ll catch a cold like this.” But she didn’t budge from her spot, holding her daughter like she’d never let her go.
“You’re Eve’s mom?” asked Chuck, though the answer was obvious. Kata looked exactly like an older version of Eve.
Kata nodded, tears squeezing out of her closed eyelids.
“You mentioned inside?” said Emma, who was, in fact, starting to shiver a bit, and wanted very much to get somewhere warm, where they could discuss this turn of events. “Inside where? Where are we?”
“Inside, inside,” said Kata, releasing her daughter from her hug but keeping an arm around her.
“We’ll make introductions when you are all dry and warm. Do you have dry clothes or is everything wet?” she said, looking at the contents of Charlie’s backpack, strewn all over the floor.
“We lost everything,” said Emma, holding back tears. “Including our way home. All that’s left is …” She gestured at the mess. Charlie squeezed his sister’s hand.
“All right, now, don’t start worrying. Inside!” admonished Kata, herding the teens from the damp, dark box into what looked like the hallway of a home. “We’ll deal with all that later,” she said, gesturing at their spare belongings. “There are dry clothes inside; I’m sure you can find something.” She pushed the boys through the house and off into one room to change, and then led the girls into another.
Emma had only caught a glance of the rest of the home as Kata rushed through it, so she took her time looking around the room where they were changing. For all intents and purposes, it looked like a bedroom of some sort. There was a wide, raised platform with a long, soft mattress, which Emma assumed served as a bed. Small tables on either side held up what Emma assumed were lamps. Across from the bed, a large section of the wall was bound by a rectangular frame of what seemed to be wood, but as far as Emma could tell, there was nothing within the frame. Just outside the frame to the right, a small glass-fronted panel was embedded into the wall. Sliding doors hid what Emma thought could be a closet, and a door led into another room. The doorknob, while similar to Earth doorknobs, was about half a foot higher than what Emma was used to.
Kata pulled open a dresser drawer and tossed some dry clothes at the girls. “It won’t fit exactly, but it’s good enough,” she said. “Extra arms, it seems,” she said, unfurling from around her neck two extra sleeves on the shirt she was wearing, which Emma had at first thought were a scarf.
Emma held up the clothes Eve’s mother had given her. The soft, stretchy pants seemed normal, but, sure enough, her shirt also had four sleeves. It was dry, though, and that was all she cared about right now. She peeled off her wet clothes and put on the strange but warm garments with gratitude.
